


breathtaking

by AvaRosier



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, Hogwarts AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4388981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaRosier/pseuds/AvaRosier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She’s come over readily enough, but the way she glares at him tells him she will gladly hex him just to feel joy.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	breathtaking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toflowerknights](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toflowerknights/gifts).



You can find the graphic edit that inspired this drabble [HERE](http://avgeropulos.tumblr.com/post/124623862894/liam-hayden-h-o-g-w-a-r-t-s-a-u-for). Emma likes TW but she didn't particularly ship Liam/Hayden until I started flailing about them in her general direction. She decided to make something for me, and now she kind of ships it. Which is why she hates me right now. *CACKLES* 

* * *

 

The thing is, Liam knows that when Scott was outed as a werewolf, the kids at Hogwarts were downright horrible to him. Parents, even the occasional politician tried to get him kicked out. But the Headmistress had held firm and stated that Hogwarts was open to all. So, when Liam gets bitten by one of Greyback’s cronies and all of the sudden he’s having to share the (recently refurbished) Shrieking Shack with Scott, Theo, Malia, Boyd, Erica, and Brett once a month, it doesn’t come with as much upheaval as he would have expected.

Most people just give him a wide berth. Okay, granted they might be more scared of his temper problem, but he’s been doing a lot better than that. Good enough to pick up his broomstick and play Keeper for the Hufflepuff house team. Good enough to help Hufflepuff win the last two games against Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. So, people nod at him in the hallways and don’t stop talking the second he enters a room.

There are exceptions, of course. Some of them come with the werewolf territory—Scott and the others kind of become his instant friends—but some of them have stuck with him through it all, like Mason. Mason, who is now chattering about some ancient Incan wizard he’d read about last night when sitting in the library drooling over the Seventh-year Ravenclaw beater, Danny. Then their potions professor calls the class to order.

The first thing he does, of course, is force them all to split up into partners. Liam gives a small wave in the direction of Mason and his regretful look as he heads over to sit next to his partner for the class. When he hears, “ _Dunbar, Romero_ ”, Liam’s head spins around so fast he nearly gives himself whiplash.

“Say what?”

And then his vision is filled with the sight of Hayden Romeron, clad in her uniform sweater and skirt, regulation green-and-silver tie to go with her House emblem, sauntering towards his table. She sets her bag down with a dull thud and slides into Mason’s old seat with a flip of her long brown hair. She’s come over readily enough, but the way she glares at him tells him she will gladly hex him just to feel joy.

The instructions for their potion are up on the blackboard and Liam continues to look over at his partner warily. “I’ll get the ingredients and you can cut them up.”

“Works for me.” She trills carelessly. It’s probably for the best; Hayden has one of the top grades in the class and she’s really precise with a blade. Really, really precise.

He has friends like Scott and Lydia, he has friends like Mason, and then he has Hayden Romero. She puts herself in his space much more than the rest of the students at Hogwarts, but she doesn’t exactly act like she  _likes_  him. He’s not sure what it means, or if this was a girl thing he was clueless about (he doesn’t have the guts to ask Malia for advice). For Merlin’s sake, just the thought of Hayden being sweet and nice to him is disturbing in a bad way; it’d be so unlike her. She barely gets around dress code regulations with those combat boots she likes to wear with her uniform.

Liam returns with their ingredients and gets to work smashing the mistletoe berry into a paste with his mortar and pestle while Hayden slices the bat spleen into five parts. They work nearly wordlessly in tandem with each other—Liam’s no slouch in the academic department. The thing is: he’d used to have problems in Potions. The whole ‘being patient’ thing had been hard for him even a year ago and he’d ruined so many of his assignments and sometimes he’d had a meltdown afterwards.

This, here, it’s not just the coaching he gets from his stepdad, Scott, or even Professor Deaton the gamekeeper. Right now, he’s got his sensitive hearing attuned to Hayden’s breathing. She breaths more shallowly but still carefully when she slices ingredients; deep and slow in the rhythm she stirs the potion. But when she adds ingredients to the smoky liquid, she holds her breath in anticipation. There’s worse things to do than to time your motions to someone else’s breathing.

They’re nearly done with the potion, Liam stirring the thing as it deepens from lavender to eggplant, when their table gets an unwelcome visitor. “Shouldn’t there be a height requirement to be in this class? What’s the matter, leave your stepladder at home, Dunbar?” The nasally voice intones from behind him, sniggering at his own joke. Liam grits his teeth together, and tries to quash his rising irritation. There’s no way he’s gonna ruin today’s grade.

Hayden would probably hit him with one of the Unforgivables.

“Get bent, Talbot.” He grounds out. Brett was still kind of a dick to him even after Liam had been bitten. Can’t win everybody, it seems. Liam chances a glance away from his cauldron to shoot a black look up at Brett where he stands looking smug. He’s trying to get a rise out of Liam, he knows that intellectually. But sometimes he just really wants to—

His mind nearly goes blank when he feels Hayden lean around his body, and then her arm is reaching out and dropping a dark shape into Brett’s cauldron. The smoky dark purple elixir inside starts turning an alarming shade of black. Holding onto Liam’s shoulder for balance, she smirks at Brett.

“That, was Chizpurfle fang, and you have roughly one minute to figure out what will neutralize it before that turns to black tar and starts overflowing  _all over_ the dungeons. I’d hate to have that much detention.”

Brett’s entire face morphs into panic mode and he clearly wants to yell at Hayden, but he has no time. Liam snorts at Brett’s back as he races away towards the ingredients cabinets. This time, when Liam looks over at Hayden, she’s not sneering at him. He meets her playful smile with a relieved grin and refocuses on their assignment.

The bell rings and Hayden gathers up her things before nodding at him. When she tells him “not bad, Liam”, he swears he stops breathing.

Yeah, could be way worse.


End file.
